1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display apparatus and a method of driving the same, and, more particularly, to a liquid crystal display (“LCD”) and a method of driving the same.
2. Discussion of the Background
LCDs are widely used flat panel displays. An LCD may include two substrates including field-generating electrodes, such as pixel electrodes and a common electrode, and a liquid crystal (LC) layer interposed therebetween. LCDs display images by applying voltages to the field-generating electrodes to generate an electric field in the LC layer, which changes the orientations of LC molecules in the LC layer to adjust polarization of incident light.
A vertical alignment (VA) mode LCD, in which LC molecules are aligned such that their long axes are perpendicular to the substrates in the absence of an electric field, has a high contrast ratio and a wide reference viewing angle. The reference viewing angle is defined as the viewing angle at which the contrast ratio is equal to 1:10 or as the limit angle for the inversion in luminance between the grays.
A wide viewing angle of the VA mode LCD may be realized by, for example, having cutouts in the field-generating electrodes and protrusions on the field-generating electrodes. The cutouts and the protrusions can alter the tilt directions of the LC molecules. The LC molecules may have various tilt directions due to the cutouts and the protrusions, which may widen the reference viewing angle.
However, VA mode LCDs have relatively poor lateral visibility as compared to frontal visibility. For example, a patterned VA (PVA) mode LCD having cutouts may display an image that becomes brighter at the sides thereof, thereby resulting in poor lateral visibility.
In addition, as the resolution of the LCD increases, it may be necessary to increase the number of data lines and data driving chips. Therefore, production costs may increase and it may be difficult to make a small LCD.